The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday opened an investigation into Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s meeting with the operator of a privately owned bridge between Detroit and Canada.
Rep. Robert Garcia sent a letter to Lutnick requesting a number of documents, including communications related to the Monday meeting.
The request comes after President Donald Trump threatened to block the opening of a new bridge to Canada — the Gordie Howe International Bridge — just hours after Lutnick reportedly met with Matthew Moroun, the billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge, its private competitor.
“It appears that you have chosen to protect a politically connected billionaire donor family at the expense of promoting American commerce,” Garcia wrote in his Thursday letter to Lutnick. “Your interference could increase traffic congestion, reduce economic opportunity, and damage trade between the United States and Canada.”
The Moroun family are major Republican donors with deep ties in Michigan politics. The family, whose enterprise lies in transportation infrastructure, spent more than $33 million in 2012 to back a failed referendum that would have blocked construction of the bridge, in addition to hundreds of thousands donated to politicians who opposed the new span.
Matthew Moroun, the son and heir to the family fortune who met with Lutnick on Monday, has donated more than $600,000 to Trump’s campaign since 2019, the Detroit Metro Times reported.
“The Moroun family’s latest attempt to delay or block the opening of the bridge by directly appealing to you and to the Trump Administration appears to have proven successful,” Garcia wrote.
The letter asks Lutnick for any and all information from his conversation with Moroun on Monday, in addition to requesting communications, including emails, texts, calendar invites and private messages between the Commerce Department, the White House, any member of the Moroun family and representatives of the Canadian government.
“It is flatly unacceptable and undeniably corrupt to allow a wealthy donor to dictate our foreign and economic policy in order to protect his personal business interests,” Garcia wrote. “And the public deserves to know if you or President Trump stand to receive additional benefits from Mr. Moroun in exchange for your sudden interference.”
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